


two lost souls meeting in the middle

by AllisonDiamond



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Feel-good, Feelings, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, M/M, Soulmates, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 06:23:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13805301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllisonDiamond/pseuds/AllisonDiamond
Summary: “I heard you just received your words. Is that true, Everett?” T’Challa asks, folding his arms across his chest.Everett weakly chuckles after he shifts position on the bed, carefully not to put pressure on his injured arm. “I did. I didn’t think it was that important seeing as they really aren’t interested in me,” he says, licking his lips.T’Challa’s brows furrow in confusion. “Why is that so? You’re a good man. Why would they refuse you?”Everett gives him a small smile. “I don’t blame them. I’m…I don’t think he’s looking for a relationship right now, and I respect his choice.”





	two lost souls meeting in the middle

“I heard you just received your words. Is that true, Everett?” T’Challa asks, folding his arms across his chest. 

Everett weakly chuckles after he shifts position on the bed, carefully not to put pressure on his injured arm. “I did. I didn’t think it was that important seeing as they really aren’t interested in me,” he says, licking his lips.

T’Challa’s brows furrow in confusion. “Why is that so? You’re a good man. Why would they refuse you?”

Everett gives him a small smile. “I don’t blame them. I’m…I don’t think he’s looking for a relationship right now, and I respect his choice.”

“In Wakanda,” T’Challa begins, releasing his hands from his chest, letting them fall slackly against his sides, “we treasure the ones we are matched with. It’s a momentous occasion when we discover the one who bears our words.”

Everett shifts slightly on the bed, accidentally hitting his hand in the process. “Damn,” he hisses, looking up when he feels a soft pressure on his hand. “Oh, hey, thanks.” He smiles. 

T’Challa takes his hand away and Everett feels a little lost when that happens. “You should not be moving this much. It will only slow down the healing process.”

“I _know._ ” Everett rolls his eyes. “I hate being confined to a small space. It brings up a lot of bad memories from when I was stationed in Iraq.”

“I understand.” T’Challa shares a common look with Everett. “When I lost my father…it was difficult for me to be in a closed quarter without seeing my father’s death played out all over again right in front of me.”

“I’m sorry.” Everett’s brown eyes soften. “I imagine that must have been horrible to have experienced.”

“It was. Even though, my father prepared me well for his death, I was not ready when the bomb went off. When I saw my father’s dead body, I was angry and furious. I shouldn’t have experienced any of those emotions, but at the time, I was unable to stop myself from feeling those things.”

“That’s—” Everett pauses and takes a deep breath in. “I guess it’s not the same preparing for something than actually witnessing it happen right in front of you.”

“I suppose you are right.” T’Challa rubs his hands together. “I wish to speak no more of this. It still runs deep and I’m afraid I will bother you with my issues when I am sure you have plenty of your own ones to deal with.”

“It’s not a problem at all. It doesn’t bother me at all but I understand,” he says gently, rubbing through the thin material of his hospital gown.

“Your hand,” T’Challa lets out, watching as the sleeve rides up Everett’s hand. “May I see it?”

“My hand?” Everett sends him a confused look. “Sure, if that’s what you want.”

“I meant your words,” T’Challa clarifies, taking a step closer to the bed, eyes never leaving Everett’s hand. “I know it's an intimate act to view another’s intended words, but I am curious to know which man could have rejected you.”

“You want to see my words?”

T’Challa nods.

“Alright then if that’s what you really want?” Everett sighs and tries to roll his sleeve up, but it a little weird doing it with just one hand. “Could you help me?”

“Are you sure of this?” T’Challa looks at him for confirmation. “I don’t wish to force you into something you are not comfortable with.”

Everett lolls his head back and winces a little when his head hits the cold, hard wall. “Yeah, I’m sure. Believe me, I wouldn’t have offered to show just anyone my words, your majesty.”

“You are quite a strange man, Everett Ross,” T’Challa says in a pleasant voice. 

“As you are, your majesty,” he says, his heart beating wildly in his chest, as T’Challa rolls his sleeve up. Each time T’Challa touches him, it sends little electric touches to his body, and it makes the hair on his skin to stand up.

“I don’t intend on going anyway.” His brows wrinkle in confusion until it dawns on him. “I’m — why haven’t you told me, Everett?”

“I thought you knew and didn’t want me. Who’d want a washed up sliver haired forty-something-year-old man?”

“I would.” T’Challa rubs gentle strokes down his hand. “You’re my intended. I would cherish you forever and always.”

Everett blinks. “You can’t be serious? You honestly want to be with you?” He laughs. “I mean, your majesty, you have a beautiful woman already hanging on your shoulder. What could you possibly see in me that would make you drop her like that?”

T’Challa looks at him strangely, searching for the meaning in his words. “Oh Nakia? We are just friends. She was never meant for me. You were. You’re my intended. She is not. You are the one who fits me. She is not. You’re the only one I could possibly feel comfortable with, who I’m allowed to be myself. I should have seen it earlier.” He looks right into Everett’s eyes.

“T’Challa—”

“Is having me as your intended that bad of a thing?”

“No, no, it is not!” Everett is quick to reassure him. “It’s just that for the longest while, the whole soulmates concept has been lost to me, and I’m not sure how to feel about it _now_. I knew when I met you, you were my soulmate. I just felt it. And when you didn’t acknowledge it, I just thought that was that. I wasn’t meant to have a soulmate and I made my peace with that. And now…I just don’t know how to feel.”

T’Challa looks down in shame and then up at Everett again, eyes shameful and regretful. “I was so consumed with guilt after my father’s death and being the future King that I didn’t realize that my mark had came in. I _felt_ an itch once on my back, but I never went to explore it. I’m sorry.”

“That’s — we’re both—” He smiles softly. “I’m not against the idea of having a soulmate, so I’m okay with it if you want to give this a try.”

“I’d be honored to have you in my life whether that be as a friend, or my intended, Everett Ross.” He smiles back, bringing up Everett’s hand up to his lips and kisses it.

Everett blushes but doesn’t lose his cool. “If you’re think you’re up to having a sliver-fox beauty who finds himself in way too much for his own good, then that’s your funereal, your majesty.”

“You’ll be my very own sliver-fox umfazi-to-ibe.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> umfazi-to-ibe: wife to be
> 
> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://neenabthurman.tumblr.com)


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